Jet aircraft, such as commercial passenger and military aircraft, use thrust reversers on the aircraft's jet engines to reverse fan exhaust air from a jet engine in order to reduce the aircraft's speed after landing. Such jet aircraft may also use variable area fan nozzles (VAFNs) to improve the propulsive efficiency of the aircraft's jet engines. However, known thrust reversers are actuated by a thrust reverser actuation system (TRAS), and known variable area fan nozzles are actuated by a separate variable area fan actuation system. Such separate actuation systems can result in duplicate synchronization assemblies, duplicate control systems, separate/duplicate VAFN actuators and additional structure to support the mounting of the VAFN actuation components. Such duplication of assemblies, systems and components by the separate TRAS and VAFN actuation systems can increase the overall weight of the engine and aircraft, which can, in turn, reduce fuel efficiency, and in certain cases, reliability.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system and method for actuating a thrust reverser and variable area fan nozzle in a single actuation system that provides advantages over known methods and systems.